'Deadpool 2' enjoys second-highest R-rated opening

Two years ago, Deadpool burst out of the gate with a $132.4 million opening, the highest debut ever for an R-rated film. If its sequel wasn’t able to top that, it still did pretty dang well, to the tune of $125 million over three days. That shifts Avengers: Infinity War (weekend gross $28.6 million, total gross $595 million) to spot number two after three weeks at the top of the box office. Add in international markets, and Infinity War has earned $1.81 billion, making it the fourth highest-grossing film of all time. (Interestingly, though Infinity War has trounced Marvel compatriot Black Panther internationally, in terms of domestic grosses Black Panther still has about $100,000 on the other film.)

Book Club offered a solid bit of counterprogramming to the non-superhero crowd, raking in $12.5 million on 2,781 screens. The rest of the top five went to holdovers: Life of the Party (weekend gross $7.7 million, total gross $31 million) in spot number four, and Breaking In (weekend gross $6.4 million, total gross $28.7 million) bringing up the rear. Family feature Show Dogs landed just outside the top five with a disappointing $6 million on 3,212 screens.

Magnolia’s RBG, a documentary about Ruth Bader Ginsberg, continues to chug along quite admirably; it expanded its theatre count to 375 this week and saw its weekend gross increase 8% to $1.2 million as a result. Not Deadpool 2 numbers, obviously, but a documentary landing in the top ten for two consecutive weeks is nothing to sneeze at.

The weekend’s highest per-theatre average went to Warner Bros.’ re-release of Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, which earned $200,000 on four screens. New to theatres in limited release were Wim Wenders’ Pope Francis - A Man of His Word ($480,000 on 346 screens), Paul Schrader’s First Reformed ($100,270 on four screens), On Chesil Beach ($9,141 on four screens) and That Summer ($6,018 on a single screen).